Daily Archives: December 2, 2010

The Order.

“In a motion for disqualification, the supporters of the ban called for recusal of Circuit Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt.”

AsiaNews: “Bishops and Christian representatives have withdrawn from a conference on ‘Social Coexistence and Tolerance’ organized in Erbil by the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights. The gesture was intended as a protest against yet another crime committed against Christians.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “California’s retiring chief justice said Wednesday that Iowa voters’ removal of three state justices over their decision to legalize same-sex marriage suggests it’s time to scrap elections for state high courts.”

“Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced questions on the Pentagon’s review of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier today.”

Delaware Online: “A jury awarded abuse survivor John Vai $30 million in damages for the childhood sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of defrocked priest Francis DeLuca today, and found that St. Elizabeth’s Parish was grossly negligent in its failure to supervise DeLuca in the late 1960s, and should pay at least $3 million of that damage award.”

“He told senators that the military needs the authority to reverse the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy restricting service by gays and lesbians. Otherwise, he said, the military might have to scramble to respond to a court order.”

National Organization for Marriage: “‘Judge Reinhardt’s wife, Ramona Ripston, has been involved in this case on numerous accounts, and what we’ve learned from Ed Whelan’s highly informative Bench Memo yesterday, posted on National Review Online (and updated here) is that there is no way Judge Reinhardt can rightfully remain a member of this hearing without making a mockery of the federal judiciary,’ said Brian Brown, president of NOM.”

Boston.com (AP): “‘Every great leader I’ve ever known always consulted subordinates for their reviews, no matter what the issue,’ McCain said.”

The Press Association: “A key committee of Argentinian politicians is launching a first-ever debate on legalising abortion in the largely Roman Catholic country.”

LifeNews: “Abortion is already readily available in the United Kingdom, but the British government has published a new paper saying it should be more widespread . . . The Department of Health’s white paper, ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People’, published today, proposes ‘easy access’ to abortion.”

Baptist Press: “A new federally approved emergency contraceptive described by pro-life advocates as an abortion drug is now for sale. New Jersey-based Watson Pharmaceuticals announced Dec. 1 that “ella” is available by prescription at most pharmacies and clinics in the United States, as well as through an online pharmacy.”

US News & World Report / Politics: “University of West Georgia historian Daniel Williams argues that Republican candidates [in 2010] remained true to their socially conservative positions in the periphery, knowing full well that if they didn’t, they would risk losing support from their Christian base.”

The Portland Press Herald: “The appeals board voted unanimously Wednesday not to allow Dreamers Cabaret to reopen. The club was shut down in September, the day after it opened, by city inspectors for building code violations, including inadequate sprinklers and construction permits.”

LifeNews: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments Monday in the appeal of a lower court ruling related to the lawsuit brought by stem cell research scientists . . . [Steven Aden], a lead attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund applauded [the lower court's ruling]. ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life,’ he said.”

Stars and Stripes: “Senate Republicans continued their opposition to repealing the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law on Thursday, attacking the Pentagon’s new study as shortsighted and lacking the real views of military personnel.”

Washington Post: “Some expressed fears about contracting AIDS or getting leered at in the showers. Others worried that it would get in the way of critical bonding at barbecues and bar outings. Still others said it would be an affront to their religious beliefs and harm the military’s credibility.”

Ruth Institute: “Reviewed: Progress in Bioethics: Science, Policy, and Politics (Basic Bioethics), Jonathan D. Moreno and Sam Berger, eds., The MIT Press, 2010 . . . The cumulative effect of the volume is threefold: (1) a commitment to the autonomy and priority of science, (2) an eschewing of ideological (moral or religious) limitation, (3) and a clear commitment to the progressive stance in the rhetorical games of contemporary politics.”

“One of the main disconnects is that many reports have conflated the ‘positive’ responses toward repeal with the ‘equally positive or negative’ or ‘no effect’ responses.”

Tulsa World: “The special event application for Tulsa’s holiday parade may be pulled from the City Council’s 6 p.m. Thursday agenda because all nine councilors won’t be in attendance to vote, Council Chairman Rick Westcott said.”

Slate: “Wandering spouses have become a common trope for the women of Moscow. ‘Men’s environment here pushes them towards cheating,’ Tanya told me, adding that, these days, a boys’ night out in Russia often involves prostitutes . . . Infidelity in Moscow has become ‘a way of life,’ as another friend of mine put it—accepted and even expected.”

Los Angeles Times / L.A. Now: “A proposed mosque in Temecula has won the unanimous support of the local planning commission following more than five hours of often heated public testimony.”

Orange County Register: “But the survey found resistance to repealing the ban strongest among the Marines, according to The Washington Post. It’s an attitude apparently shared by their top leader, Commandant Gen. James Amos, who has said that the government should not lift the ban in wartime.”

WTVB: “The ACLU is filing a lawsuit against three Michigan Communities that have banned the state approved distribution and use of Medical Marijuana.”

Liberty Counsel: “In a letter to every U.S. Senator, the organizations state that an attempt to repeal the law that prohibits open homosexuality in the military during the lame duck session is illegitimate and untimely.”

Thomas More Law Center: “When asked by McDowell whether he supports his activist agenda, Daniel responded that as a Catholic he does not. The outraged teacher angrily threw Daniel out of his classroom and gave him a written referral for his answer . . . McDowell is head of the school district’s teachers union; unsurprisingly, the Michigan Education Association, the state teachers union, has come to McDowell’s defense.”

Southeast Texas Record: “The former general manager of a Jack in the Box in East Texas has filed a lawsuit against the restaurant alleging he was a victim of national origin and religious discrimination.”

Cybergolf: “LPGA Tour players have voted to revise the organization’s constitution by removing the ‘female at birth’ requirement. The change came about following a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman over the provision.”

Telegraph: “A lesbian mother has lost her Appeal Court battle to stop the wealthy gay father of her two children spending more time with them. The three appeal judges unanimously rejected her bid to overturn an order giving the father joint residency of the children a boy of ten and girl of seven.” Decision is here.

New York Times: “[E]ven the most ardent supporters of the bill, which was resoundingly rejected by the State Senate last December, said the measure would meet the same fate if it were brought to the floor now, and the governor, apparently reaching the same conclusion, has abandoned the idea.”

Politics.hu: “Human life will be protected from conception and marriage will be defined as heterosexual co-existence in the new Constitution, according to the specimen The Principles of Regulating the Constitution of Hungary.”

Ria Novosti: “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during an interview with U.S. talk show host Larry King that gays are not banned from serving in the Russian armed forces but that the government does not support same-sex marriages.”

The Christian Institute: “Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has warned that there are attempts to ‘stealthily and subtly’ brush aside the Christian faith in the UK. Lord Carey was writing in a leaflet promoting a ‘Not Ashamed’ campaign which encourages Christians to express their beliefs in public and at work. The campaign is organised by the religious liberty group, Christian Concern.”

BBC: “The Scottish Parliament has rejected plans to give terminally ill people the right to choose when to die, despite claims they were widely backed.”

Deutsche Welle: “Going after local Bosnian girls is the new trend for organized crime in the region, according to Radovanovic. Up until 2005, most of the victims were foreign girls and women who were lured from across Eastern Europe by alleged job offers in the West.”

Elizabeth Marquardt writing at The Huffington Post: “Those who are sanguine about widespread divorce like to say that divorce is just a temporary crisis, that family members bounce back after a couple of years ready to start a fresh journey. But governments around the world, lonely aging persons, and grown children of divorce struggling with whether to care for and how to grieve their divorced parents are telling us that the results of family breakdown are far more dramatic and lasting.”

“The case of Afghan Sayed Mossa, who has been in a Kabul jail since May 31 allegedly for converting from Islam to Christianity, will be the subject of a meeting between Gen. David Petraeus and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to legal counsel who arrived in Kabul this week to assist the 45-year-old Mossa.”

New York Times: “A new study finds that delayed marriage and childbearing are leading to increased stress for American men and women in balancing work and family obligations.”

AsiaNews: “Today is a great day for our Great Mother Church. The orphanage on Princes Island (Buyukada) has been given back to us. What we inherited from our ancestors has also been returned to us. We could not tolerate the injustice done to us. We first turned to Turkey’s courts. Since we lost all of our cases, we turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which gave us justice,” the Patriarch said.”

National Catholic Register: “A British bishop has criticized his government’s policy of repatriating Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution, saying it was not true that Iraq was safe. In a special Mass at London’s Westminster Cathedral Nov. 26, Auxiliary Bishop William Kenney of Birmingham, England, denounced the policy.”

Spero News: “Now there is also the signature of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on the law for the restitution of religious property nationalized by the state. A text that brings joy to the Patriarchate of Moscow, which now declares that ‘all outstanding issues between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church are now resolved,’ despite the discontent of religious minority communities.”

Guardian: “Churches and other religious organisations should not expect additional funding for taking part in the government’s ‘big society’ programme, the communities secretary has warned. Eric Pickles said that while he wanted faith groups to get involved in the project they should do so ‘without relying on state subsidies.’”

ABC.net: “A Federal Government staffer has been described as a ‘Grinch’ for telling Centrelink and Medicare offices not to display nativity scenes as part of Christmas decorations.”

Wicked Local Boxborough: “The committee will meet Dec. 2 to discuss and vote on the school calendar. Superintendent Steve Mills recommended that the calendar remain as it is, based on the results of the survey.”

The Express Tribune: “A Sikh man is planning to file a writ petition against Lahore High Court (LHC) security personnel after he was stopped from entering the court premises with his kirpaan, the ceremonial Sikh sword.”

Garowe Online: “Somali hardliners have accused the Horn of Africa country’s separatist region of Somaliland for allowing Christian missionaries to open schools and commence Christian religious teaching in the predominantly Muslim country, Radio Garowe reports.”

KSN: “In the Little Apple, Manhattan Lawmakers are considering adopting the most sweeping anti-gay discrimination policy in the state of Kansas. The legislation has infuriated religious leaders, who held a rally Wednesday opposing the measure.”

WHPTV: “A day after discussions of religious diversity led officials to remove the word ‘Christmas’ from signs at the Christmas Village merchant fair outside City Hall, the event’s organizers decided Tuesday to take down the signs — only to have the mayor reverse that decision.”

Washington Post: “The debate highlights the delicate position of the chaplains, who must balance the demands of their faiths with the reality of a diverse military.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss this: 1st Circuit turns away attack on Pledge of Allegiance. | MP3 19:17 mins

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the NC Family Policy Council’s Family Policy Matters to discuss the Proposition 8 California marriage litigation. | MP3 14:30 mins

ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss this: No more Mt. ‘Hushmore’: Free speech preserved at national parks.| MP3 19:17 mins

Sunshine State News: “Santorum will be heading to Boston to speak on Saturday on religion in public life at the ‘Symposium on Catholic Statesmanship’ sponsored by the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. Santorum’s speech will be taking aim at John F. Kennedy’s speech to ministers in Houston back in 1960 where JFK argued that his faith would not shape his decisions in the White House.”

“In nation after nation, the right to marriage is interpreted also as a right to access reproductive technologies that deny children a relationship with one or more of their biological parents, often but not always their father. And once that right is guaranteed in law for gay and lesbian persons, it can hardly be denied, now or in the future, to heterosexual persons.”

The Hill: “The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net-neutrality effort suggests the agency needs to replace its top leadership, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday.”

KRMG: “Senator Jim Inhofe says he will boycott this year’s Christmas Parade of Lights in downtown Tulsa because he says the parade dropped the word Christmas from its title.”

Catholic Culture: “This isn’t a trivial concern, the Pope adds: ‘The greatest attention is needed here in order to prevent the intrusion of this kind of ambiguity and to head off a situation where the celibacy of priests would practically end up being identified with the tendency to homosexuality.’”

Robert Costa writing at The Corner: “Can GOP senators who voted against the earmark ban count on the National Republican Senatorial Committee to defend them in 2012?”

James S. Cole writing at MercatorNet: “As a result of the federal courts’ jurisprudence and the current Administration’s unwillingness to enforce the Church Amendment, federal conscience clause protections are dead letters . . . Until the new Congress enacts specific legislation to allow individuals to vindicate the conscience rights Congress has given them (and overrides a Presidential veto), or until a new Administration is inaugurated that will live up to its duty of enforcing the laws on the books, federal conscience clause protections might as well not exist.”

The Local: “Corporal punishment, formally outlawed in Sweden in 1979, was a regular feature of three of the couple’s four children’s lives, the Värmland district court heard . . . The court found that ‘despite the details of the case at hand the parents had a loving and caring relationship to their children’, but that the systematic treatment metered out was in breach of the law and deserving of a custodial sentence.”

Fides: “Munir Masih, a Christian accused and sentenced to 25 years in prison for blasphemy, was freed on bail today, 27 November, by the High Court of Lahore.”

BBC: “A court in India’s northern Punjab and Haryana state has dismissed a petition seeking details of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s religious beliefs.”

Asia News: “The Hajj sermon delivered by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, at the Nmira Mosque in Makkah has raised interest levels among specialists because of its harsh condemnation of terrorism. Excerpts from the sermon, which condemns terrorism and urges moderation, were reprinted in hundreds of newspapers in the Arab and Islamic worlds.”

CNEWA: “Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has been navigating turbulent waters ever since the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. In particular, these years have taken a heavy toll on traditional monasticism. Under Marxist Derg rule, which lasted until 1991, the government seized and redistributed church-owned land . . . Today, most of Ethiopia’s monasteries need financial support. Many are simply languishing.”

Clarion Ledger: “State Supreme Court Justice James Graves Jr. is poised to become a member of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. With Wednesday’s vote to confirm Graves’ nomination by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, it’s almost certain Graves will join the federal bench.”

Religion Clause: “Yesterday in Liberty University, Inc. v. Geithner, (WD VA, Nov. 30, 2010), a Virginia federal district court rejected a broad range of constitutional challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (the Obama health care reform bill).” | More from Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy.

Carson Holloway writing at Public Discourse: “Laws regulating immigration are analogous to those requiring the payment of taxes or the licensing of physicians. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is not in itself unjust, but it may be imprudent.”

OneNewsNow: “A Senate Judiciary subcommittee recently held a hearing on the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The treaty was signed some 30 years ago by former President Jimmy Carter, but was never ratified by the Senate. According to Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorney Will Estrada, if CEDAW is ever ratified by the U.S., the government will have the ability to regulate education under the guise of eliminating gender bias.”

MetroNews: “Former Army Sergeant Pepe Johnson from West Virginia says it’s good news. ‘I’m pretty excited about it. It reiterated a lot of things that I already knew,’ he said on Wednesday’s MetroNews Talkline . . . The President and General Counsel for the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, though, says the survey sends a bad message.” Audio is here.

George Weigel writing at National Review Online [11/12/2010]: “On the night of November 9 . . . Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian president of the European Union Council . . . spoke . . . on the challenges facing European democracy in the 21st century. Three days earlier, in a homily at the venerable Spanish pilgrimage shrine of Santiago de Compostela, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a similar set of questions: Where will Europe find the civilizational energy to fuel its future as a distinct cultural enterprise? What, in fact, is ‘Europe’? . . . The answers given by Van Rompuy and Benedict could not have highlighted more sharply the different roads down which Europe might travel.”

FRC Washington Update has these two reports.

GOP Clips Senate’s (Left) Wing: “Without 60 votes, the Democrats are powerless to move anything on their social agenda. In a letter to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), signed by all 42 GOP senators, Republicans made it clear that if the Majority Leader wants to move any legislation, it will be on their terms.”

Fighting Forces Fight Policy Change: “The authors of the report admitted that they didn’t ask whether our service members were for or against repeal, but on page 49 they did acknowledge why. ‘If the Working Group were to attempt to numerically divide the sentiments we heard expressed in IEFs, online inbox entries, focus groups, and confidential online communications between those who were for or against repeal of the current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, our sense is that the majority of views expressed were against repeal of the current policy.’”

Daniel Pipes: “Islam is deeply important to the public lives of Muslims. That Islam is a religion of laws, and those laws are quite permanent and universal. That they are not the same everywhere at all times, but the basics are consistent. That there are times of greater emphasis and times of lesser emphasis but Muslims always come back to these laws. Now, of course, is a time of greater emphasis. Islamic laws have far greater power than they had when I entered this field over forty years ago.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Southern Poverty Law Center’s classification of pro-family groups as hate groups is the ‘next phase’ of a gay rights movement which seeks to redefine Christianity as bigotry and to shut down honest debate, pro-family leaders warned.”

Brent Bozell writing at Townhall: “America was founded on the principle of representative democracy: The government would make policy based on the consent of the governed. Liberal elitists have grown increasingly impatient with this unenlightened system, and more and more, they are relying on judicial activists to remake society in their desired image. Far from being tribunes of the people, these judges are honored by the media elite for going around public opinion — and the Constitution — whenever the liberal impulse beckons.”

Peter Wehner writing at The Christian Science Monitor: “Christian values are not fundamentally at odds with government. There’s room for debate and constructive criticism, but not an all-out attack on government’s legitimacy. Instead, Christians should consider the role of the state within the framework of their guiding principles.”